Thanks for all your kind words guys. I was a bit het up when I posted, but understandable I think. Dad got away with no breaks although he has a lot of bruisin and swelling, luckily he landed on the grass after being launched off the back of the bike. He's more gutted about the bike. It was a 2005 BMW R1200ST which they only made for a few years, they're quite rare over here now and his only had 4000 miles on it. Typically, he'd had a new exhaust and K&N fitted yeterday morning, exhaust is now trashed. The car rode up over the bike which was lying on it's left side so if the swinging arm is damaged I reckon they'll write it off. Those Beemer swing arms & shaft drive must cost a bomb. All left side panel work shagged too.
Wavex I've never seen aerial pics of the magic roundabout before. It's in Swindon not so far from where I work so I've had to negotiate it a few times in the past. It's franctic at rush hour with people stopped everywhere! I've never been through it on a bike though, best keep it that way I think. Someone once told me the best way to handle it is to go all the way around the outside!
Jonno, I don't know what kind of Safety organizations you have in Britain, but I bet if you AND your Dad approached one with a Safety Commercial in mind, they'd go for it:
"Hi, I'm Jonno, and I got rear-ended on my bike two weeks ago. Hi, I'm Jonno's Dad, and I got rear-ended on my bike yesterday" Then finish with some clever phrase (I'll let the marketers figure that out).
Could be an attention-getting ad, and maybe save a person or two...
Botch, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I've thought of starting a road safety campaign to remind drivers of the day one rules of the road that everyone seems to forget. It always springs to mind when people barge their way onto the motorway in the morning during my commute, causing congestion, rapid lane changes and heavy braking. They fail to realise that they should give way to traffic on the main carriageway. But what difference will one man's voice make I always ask myself? I'm certainly going to write to MCN abou it, maybe they will pick up on it.
I firmly believe that there are too many cars on the road nowadays and people don't treat them with the respect they should. Driving often seems to come second to eating, drinking, smoking or talking on the phone to a lot of people when they really should be devoting all their attention to the road. 2 ton of metal can kill at almost any speed. Even if they are paying attention, it seems that when they want to get home, certain individuals look too far ahead like Andz says.
Oh well, it's just more weight to the argument for not getting another bike. If it weren't for my 700 mile a week commute which incurrs £5.50 a day Severn Bridge toll fee in the car then I'd be 100% put off another bike. As it stands though, buying another bike and running it still works out cheaper than running the car every day and I don't have to worry about jams either. Gonna have to think long and hard about this one.
Cheers all, Jon.
